Once More, With Feeling
by DawningAurora
Summary: He was her Taijitu, pushing and pulling her from the highest of mountains and the deepest of chasms. SessKag AU.
1. Once More, With Feeling

**Title:** Once more, with feeling  
**Author: **DawningAurora  
**Genre: **Romance

**Rating: **K**  
** **Word Count: **503  
**Character(s): **Sesshomaru, Kagome, (mention of Miroku)

**Warnings: **None

**Summary:** He was her taijitu; pushing and pulling her from the highest of mountains and the deepest of chasms.

* * *

He turned and walked away in a quiet tempest of silk, sword and silver hair. Her knees buckled beneath her, as she fell-sat quite suddenly. The swarm of memories that swelled and ebbed like tides, fought for recognition in her mind's eye.

The air tasted tantalizingly of sandalwood, of him. A faint, effervescent feeling bubbled from within her to the tip of her tongue.

"Sesshomaru-sama" she spoke softly, knowing he would hear her despite.

He stilled his steps but did not turn. She spoke with feeling in her silence before speaking with words "Won't you stay? Just for tonight?"

The youkai before her seemed unmoved. He started forward and did not look back. She was glad of having been seated, when the crush of sadness threatened to overwhelm her. She swallowed past the vacuum in her throat and shouldered her pack. She started forward towards the hotspring that beckoned with the promise of relief and the sharp tang of minerals.

She reached the pool and used the sutras that Miroku had taught her to make to secure her perimeter before she rested her pack on a flat stone. The barrier should hold against both human and demons so she was allowed a small slice of her own world.

She undressed quickly and stepped into the pool. It was the right depth and she gratefully sank into it, hoping against hope to wash away the pains of her journey, physical and otherwise.

The warmth of the pool gathered around her, intending to swallow her whole. She happily complied. The drugging effects of the pool lulled her into slumber, from which she did not rise until the moon did.

She awoke with a body that felt weighted by the water and a sudden fear as she felt youki brush teasingly against her barrier. Dressing quickly, she breached the walls she had crafted and went in search of the youki. It led her to a minuscule patch of land free from trees. A fire crackled cheerily in the center. She felt confused. Youkai did not need light. She felt a very familiar youki brush against her skin.

She shivered pleasingly.

Both light and shadow shied away from the ethereal figure that sat at the base of a tree. Luminous honey dipped irises met her gaze as an indigo moon shimmered in the wake of the real moon. The silks of his kimono barely rustled as he rose gracefully despite heavy embellishments of armor and pelt.

"You are late." He enunciated.

She smiled in time to the swell of happiness against the ebb of her fear. She bowed lightly as she spoke "Forgive me, Sesshomaru-sama"

* * *

**Aurora's Note**- I hope you enjoyed that.

Posted on 08 February 2013.

Do review.


	2. Shell

Title: Traitorous  
Author: DawningAurora  
Word count: 245  
Universe: Alternate Universe  
Rating: K  
Summary: Sesshomaru is unable to reconcile the choices of his past and present.

* * *

Sesshomaru had been magnificently indifferent to darkness. It meant nothing to his youkai senses. But the cloud of darkness he now found himself walking in felt oddly alive. His senses prickled uneasily. Slightly confused, he walked onwards. A few steps later he realized that he was walking alone. The thought did not perturb him as much as it should have.

The mists shifted then, still tasteless, as did the darkness. A figure stood before him cloaked in shadows and exuding a sense of familiarity.

"You shame us" it hissed menacingly.

He merely raised a brow at the melodramatic declaration.

"You shame us by consorting with humans." It declared.

Sesshomaru remained unmoved. Dangerously so.

"You are just like Father. Exactly so."

Sesshomaru's sense of unease grew and so did the recognition of the figure before him.

His hands clenched into fists as he realized who it was.

It was his own self from when he had despised his father for being weak enough to fall for a mortal woman and for dying trying to protect a child who by tradition should have been drowned at birth.

The harsh laugh at his realization cut deeply.

As did the bright sunlight which now shone from behind its mountainous curtain.

As did the sight of the human miko whose hands strayed to trace the shell of his ear as her worried eyes looked searchingly over him.

As did the hurt on her eyes as he flinched away from her.

* * *

I hope you enjoyed that.

Posted on 13 February 2013.

Do Review.

-Aurora


	3. User Friendly

**Title:** Dance  
**Author:** DawningAurora  
**Word count:** 427  
**Universe: ** Alternate Universe  
**Rating:** K  
**Summary:** A demon and a miko dance with the limits of who they are and who they must be.

* * *

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."  
― Friedrich Nietzsche

* * *

When she rises, it is in the softness of a cotton padded bed, replete with her favorite pink pillows and comfortable sheets. Her descent to wakefulness is gentle, filled with the left over peace from her dream.

She rises with the sun, for once and decides to surprise her mother with breakfast. To her dismay, Mama is already there before her. They laugh it off with a peculiar sense of falling in place.

She helps her mother with breakfast. There is enough time for her to head upstairs and finish her left-over homework. Switching her completely anti-user friendly monster of a computer on, she decides to go down for breakfast. She knows that by the time she gets back, it will have loaded completely.

Breakfast is a noisy affair with her brother attempting to sneak vegetables to Buyo and getting soundly scratched for his efforts. Mama watches with a discreet smile and gentle admonishments. Grandpa is waxing poetic on the art of making amulets with lizard bones.

Kagome smiles at the domestic familiarity of the scene before she begins to feel oddly dizzy. Their voices begin to fade away in the humdrum in her mind. The scene wavers and begins to fade in the way only dreams do.

She is panicked and thrashing as she wakes up to another sun. This one is brighter and more golden than hers. This time there is no peace in her descent to wakefulness. It is instead filled with dread. Blindly she turns to Sesshomaru, pleading for a measure of comfort. Impassive gold eyes meet her own. She turns hers earthwards. She rises and goes about her morning task with a sleep-deprived mind and a grief-weighed heart.

.

Sesshomaru looks on expressionlessly as the spasms of her limbs and furrow in her brow intensify. There is a small butterfly fluttering in his heart on wings made of worry. He brushes it away with a careless and uncertain hand. There were no demons threatening her physically therefore, it was not his problem. He had made entirely too many allowances on account of that woman. He was not going to make any more.

It did not stop the said butterfly from fluttering madly around.

When he rose, it was to shake the restlessness from his limbs. When he made tea, he set out two glasses because tea made for one person does not taste quite as well.

When a small smile graces her lips, the warmth that spreads within him is due to the tea and not the smile of an ephemeral miko.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it! :)

Prompt- User Friendly.

Posted on 25th February.

Do Review.

-Aurora


	4. Legacy

**Subject Line: **Week #313- Role Call

**Title: **Legacy  
**Author: ** DawningAurora  
**Genre: **Family, Angst

**Rating: **K**  
** **Word Count: **367  
**Character(s): **Sesshomaru, InuPapa

**Warnings: **None of consequence..

**Summary:** Of fathers and sons.. The Inu no Taisho asks Sesshomaru to respond to the call of duty.

*The traditional ritual journey is one they undertake after an engagement but before settling down into marriage. It allows the youkai to wander to their hearts content before settling down to marriage.

* * *

Sesshomaru stands in the thrall of an ebony moon as he polishes his sword, as one of the Inu no Taisho's attendants obsequiously requests his presence before his father. He does not reply but complies anyway.

He makes his way through the sleeping castle to his father's quarters.

Father is waiting with two cups of sake and a beaming smile.

Sesshomaru does not smile back.

"What is it that you require of me, Father" he speaks, a fine layer of contempt coating his words. The smile dims considerably but does not falter.

A soft sigh escapes him and his eyes are lined by fine lines of worry. Ryuukotsusei is still worrying him. He bade Sesshomaru to sit.

Sesshomaru feels a slight softening for him then.

"There is a reason why I summoned you now Sesshomaru," he spoke gently, "You are my first-born. The inheritor of all that is mine."

Sesshomaru noted the careful blend of fact and flattery. This was not going to be pretty.

"As my firstborn," he continued, "It is your duty to find a wife."

The denial coated his lips and almost darted from his tongue. He could not accept the fact that his father was already attempting to install him on the throne. To him it was an act of resignation. He knew his father felt he would not survive the coming battle.

_Marriage could not be denied but perhaps delayed?_

He requested to take the traditional ritual journey.*

His father acquiesced with a defeated sigh.

* * *

Hope you enjoyed it.

This ficlet was voted first place at iyfic_contest at livejournal.

Do check it out.. They have some of the most amazing writers I've ever seen…

Posted on 6th March 2013.

Do review.


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